This blog looks at the insurance industry's knowledge of the harmful health effects of exposure to asbestos and other related topics.

Insurance Company of North America

February 09, 2010

John Nilan, assistant vice president of the American Mutual
Liability Insurance Company, wrote a pamphlet in 1945 entitled “Casualty Insurance.”
Mr. Nilan pointed out that, "the growth of the casualty insurance business
in the United States - now an industry having assets of approximately
$3,000,000,000 and doing an annual business in excess of $1,629,777,000 and
providing protection in one form or another, directly or indirectly, for
practically every man, woman and child in the country - relates closely to
basic economic developments."

Mr. Nilan reported that in 1943, the leading stock casualty companies based
on premium income were:

Other notable leading stock insurance companies include Pacific Indemnity and
Travelers Indemnity.

As for mutual casualty companies, the largest in 1943 were Liberty Mutual
and American Mutual Liability. Liberty Mutual was also the largest mutual casualty
company ten years earlier in 1933.

Mr. Nilan stated that there are four basic and specialized functions common
to all casualty insurance companies:

"Underwriting. To develop proper insurance contracts, to make the
selection of policyholders and to determine the rates at which protection will
be provided.
Acquisition or Sales. To secure new policyholders and provide present
policyholders with proper and necessary protection and to serve as field
underwriters.
Claims. To see that all losses, as stipulated in the insurance contract, are
paid fairly and promptly and, where injuries are involved, to see that proper
medical attention is available.
Engineering. To assist policyholders in the prevention and minimizing of
accidents and losses."

Mr. Nilan wrote that the safety engineering function has the following
number of duties to perform:

"1. To study, analyze and determine the causes of accidents and losses,
and develop practical, economical ways and means of either eliminating or
minimizing such causes.
2. To survey policyholders' plants or establishments to determine all possible
hazards which could result in accidents.
3. To assist the policyholder in developing sound safety programs, safeguard
all known hazards and educate employees on safe practices and co-operation with
safety programs and measures.
4. To maintain a regular contact with policyholders so that safety programs and
measures could be kept up to date, in keeping with changes or additions to
plant operations, equipment or materials."

October 06, 2009

In May 1948 Mr. James Crawford, Vice President of the Indemnity Insurance Company of North America, presented a paper entitled "Products Liability Insurance" at the Spring Insurance Conference of the American Management Association. Mr. Crawford had been with the Indemnity Insurance Company of North America since 1934 and became vice president in 1943.

An opening excerpt: "Like all other branches of liability insurance, products liability insurance has its roots in the law, and it deals with the legal obligations of the manufacturer or vendor to the person or persons who have suffered injury in consequence of the sale or distribution of products, goods or merchandise from certain services related thereto.

The law covering the existence and application of this obligation has been long in the making, and the law books are filled with cases that have been important enough for one reason or another to reach the higher courts whose decisions are published. Countless other cases have been tried and adjudicated in the lower courts on the basis of principles laid down by the supreme courts."

A section of the paper titled "Adequate Warning Labels Required" stated in part:

The need for explicit instructions in the use of a product and its thorough testing before placing it on the market is brilliantly illustrated by the decision in Ebers v. General Chemical Company (Michigan Supreme Court, January 2, 1945)... Despite the fact that the defendant has tested the product [an insecticide] extensively in the laboratory and in other states and had prepared the product in accordance with the instructions of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the Michigan court felt the question of negligence for failure also to test the product in Michigan, and the adequacy of the directions furnished with the product, were questions of fact for the jury.

Mr. Crawford concluded in part that, "It seems clear and reasonable that a manufacturer should warn those who will use his product of its characteristics which make its use in a normal and expected fashion dangerous under some conditions."

May 05, 2009

In the 1940s, the Education Department of the North America Companies grouped together certain lectures given by company officers and department heads to students in the training school. The lectures were edited and revised and became a text entitled "Casualty Insurance." Here's an excerpt:

Granting that there are good risks in the undesirable classifications and bad ones in the desirable classifications, it has been North America's practice to underwrite the individual risk on its own merits rather than to accept or decline a risk purely on its classification. However, there are certain classes of risk which are so notoriously unprofitable that our standards and requirements for their acceptance tend to rule out all but the more deserving ones. Generally speaking, this group consists of those risks which by their very nature are self-evidently hazardous and are potential producers of severe losses, In this group are such risks as... any operation involving the use of mercury, phenol, chromic acid, lead or other toxic materials, including silica and asbestos.

April 30, 2009

In 1926, Mr. Benjamin Rush, the President of The Insurance Company of North America (INA) gave a speech before the Insurance Society of New York, which he titled, "The Duty of the Insurance Organization to the Public.

Here are excerpts from the speech:

You have, in the past, I am sure, listened to many able addresses dealing with the conduct and problems or various specific branches of the insurance business. These addresses have informed you of the law, and rules of practice applying to various branches of the insurance business, and to the methods whereby the Local Agent, Special Agent, the Engineering Bureaus, the Rating Organization, the Brokers, and the management of insurance companies function in furnishing insurance protection to the public.

I am about to recite to you, so that you may clearly see what are our chief duties and responsibilities as insurance men; therefore I am going to talk to you tonight about what I conceive to be "The Duty of the Insurance Organization to the Public."

April 01, 2009

The Insurance Company of North America was founded in 1792. In 1920, INA created Indemnity Insurance Company of North America. This new company was necessary when INA decided to write liability insurance, workman's compensation insurance, and accident and health insurance. Indemnity Insurance Company of North America was a member of the National Council on Compensation Insurance in 1933 when the NCCI established their occupational disease program (blog entry 3/26/09). INA merged in 1982 with Connecticut General to form CIGNA. In 1999, the ACE Group of Insurance Companies acquired the property and casualty operations of CIGNA.

INA provided insurance coverage for asbestos manufacturers such as the Pittsburgh Corning Corporation, the Armstrong Cork Corporation, H.K. Porter, the Keene Corporation, Nicolet Industries, and G.A.F Corporation. Hereis a March 19, 1975 letter to INA from G.A.F. in regard to a product liability claim filed in San Francisco, California against G.A.F. The lawsuit sought compensation for injuries that resulted from the handling of asbestos, fiberglass, and insulation products and materials during the period of January 1, 1943 through 1973. A copy of the letter was sent to Robert Beaulieu at Marsh and McLennan and to INA's Robert Pelletiro. On April 21, 1977, Mr. Pelletiro attended the second meeting of the Enterprise Liability Discussion Group (blog entry 2/27/09).